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Noida and Gurgaon police have registered several cases recently against gangs using retail sites to sell stolen items, including vehicles, jewellery, cellphones and laptops.

HIGHLIGHTS

Army personnel tracks his stolen cars on Internet

There are organised gangs selling stolen goods on retail websites.

National Capital Region has become a playground for such thieves.

After a search that lasted almost 10 months, a retired Army man not only tracked his stolen Honda City car, which was being sold through advertisement on a website but also got a member of the gang arrested.Kulwant Singh, resident of C Block of sector 21 in Noida went for a walk on August

After a search that lasted almost 10 months, a retired Army man not only tracked his stolen Honda City car, which was being sold through advertisement on a website but also got a member of the gang arrested.

Kulwant Singh, resident of C Block of sector 21 in Noida went for a walk on August 4, 2015 when he noticed that his car was missing. He tried finding his car in the locality but failed and finally registered an FIR at sector 20 police station. Singh made several rounds of the police station to know the status of his car but received no response. Seeing the state of inactivity, Singh took investigation in his own hands.

STOLEN CARS

Singh had read in the papers that at times stolen goods are sold on online sites and started tracking www.olx.in. Finally after tracking the stolen vehicle for months, he spotted his car bearing the registration number of DL-4C-R-0757, which was being sold for Rs 70,000.

Posing as a customer, Singh contacted the seller and going along with a plain-dressed policeman got the man arrested. However, police claim that the man arrested, who was identified as Ahmad, was only the seller and the real thieves are still out in the open.

"Ahmad, during the interrogation said that one Zulfikar, a resident of Loni, had sold the car to him last year. He also produced documents of the car, which appeared to be fake," said a senior police officer.

Despite failing to track the car, Noida police are now planning to initiate action against the website under Section 79 of the IT Act. "We will send a notice to the website and initiate action against them for not authenticating products being sold through their platform," an officer said. In the past, investigators came across many such websites selling fake or stolen products. There are organised gangs selling stolen goods on retail websites.

ONLINE GANGS

This week, Delhi police arrested a 27-year-old scrap dealer, who, in the last one year, befriended 10 people using fake Facebook profiles and robbed them clean after a night of partying at their homes. After every theft, he sold off the loot on OLX and deactivated the profile and mobile phone number he had used to contact his victim.

The National Capital Region has become a playground for such thieves. Noida and Gurgaon police have registered several cases against gangs using retail sites to sell stolen items, including vehicles, jewellery, cellphones and laptops. This growing trend has spurred investigating agencies to meet the management of these portals. To sell anything through these websites all you need is to have an email ID and phone number. They post the ad with photographs.

There is no procedure to keep a track on customers selling multiple items, police said. Many gangs prefer to operate through these websites as it is the safest way to sell stolen items without revealing their identity.

Several attempts were made to contact the website but no one was available for a comment. A senior Delhi police officer said e-tailing websites are full of such items. Mostly stolen or fake goods are sold at throw away prices to attract quick buyers.

STEP TAKEN

"We are also planning to meet senior officials of the sites to curb such crimes that are committed with the help of these websites as dozens of complaints have been received by the police. Surprisingly, educated youths are using OLX.com and Quikr.com to commit crimes as they are familiar with technology," the official said.